Some good points here, & good questions. I have a few of my own: e.g. Was the IDF informed, & did government choose to let it progress in order to deflect attention & unify the people as war typically does? Of course, even if that was the case the assault was undoubtedly on vaster, deadlier scale than anticipated.

Jews, by & large, don't see Israel as a place of physical safety—there always seems to be a fight of some sort going on there—but rather a kind of moral safety. It's the place that won't turn on us even when the going gets tough.